Smashing Pumpkins

21^st Century Appearances: 2007 Main Stage Headliner

The Defining Reading Moment: Bathed in yellow/orange light, launching into “Today” just three tracks into their sublimely widescreen headline set.

Having recently reformed, and having been away from Reading Festival since their suitably shambolic 1995 headline slot, you might have thought Billy Corgan would want to revel in nostalgia and relieve the glory days. Well that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

The Smashing Pumpkins big Reading and UK return was dominated by Zietgiest, the band’s comeback LP. It was a risky move that teetered between moments of unbridled brilliance and cringe inducing disaster. Following “Today” with the party starting “Tarantula” proved a stroke of genius, but sticking a gnawing and tiresome reading of the bloated “United States” between “Zero” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” proved a momentum killer. So much so that Billy Corgan couldn’t help but laugh and stretch his head at the rather limp response when it was the crowd’s turn to scream “despite all my rage”.

Nevertheless, the misfires couldn’t hinder a set buoyed by a some of the most addictive and riffy anthems of 90s alternative era, and when everything did click into place The Smashing Pumpkins delivered some of the most perfect moments in festival history. “Cherub Rock” proved a masterful closer with it’s seismic riffage and panoramic verse while “1979” was an absolute heartbreaker, stripped down, acoustic, and solemn. David Hayter

When Billy Corgan announced in 2005 that he wanted to reform the Smashing Pumpkins, only drummer Jimmy Chamberlin accepted from the band’s original line up. Eyebrows were initially raised at the thought of there being only two original Pumpkins in the band. Nevertheless, Corgan and Chamberlin began recording their seventh album Zeitgeist in 2007, which also saw a return to Reading Festival as headliners the same year, 12 years after their last appearance. The duo were joined on stage by guitarist Jeff Schroeder and bassist Ginger Reyes, who became touring members, and later official members, for the new Pumpkins.

The welcome return of the Smashing Pumpkins to Reading, saw the welcome return of some of their biggest and most popular hits. The prog-rock and lights spectacular set contained: “Today”, “Zero”, “Stand Inside Your Love”, “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”, “Cherub Rock”, “Tonight, Tonight” and “1979.” The highlights of the set being the acoustic sing-along of “1979”, the festival’s thundering euphoria closer “Cherub Rock”, the eerie Hendrix-esque Star Spangled Banner solo during “United States” and “Tonight, Tonight”, still as powerful as ever, even without the orchestra.

The one complaint seemed to be that the band didn’t play enough of their earlier songs, there were no tracks from debut Gish for example, and their set was too reliant on the new releaseZeitgeist, which wasn’t very good, and had divided fans. It’s admirable that the band opted to play new songs and not live off past glories, but it’s the classics that festival crowds always want to hear. Siobhan Gallagher